Increasing numbers of young people are being targeted in smaller towns and rural areas for ‘county lines’ exploitation in which gangs make them sell drugs in other areas, the most comprehensive report into the problem has found.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is Whitehall’s second worst performer for staff retention, disrupting policy development and delivery of projects, a new report from the Institute for Government has found. .

Councils face “an impossible struggle” to maintain support for socially necessary services bus services, with subsidies having fallen by almost a third since 2010-11, despite operators having reduced contract prices for the tenth year running.

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